Allegheny County judge rebukes public defender in controversial bail decision

The Allegheny County criminal court judge who repeatedly denied bail for a defendant he thought was dangerous — and whose decision was then reversed by an Orphans’ Court judge — on Tuesday rebuked the public defender who circumvented him.

Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski spent several minutes seeking an explanation from the attorney representing Isreal Moseby, who had been jailed for allegedly stabbing a woman in the throat in 2023 and, in May, walked away from an unsecured community facility while out on bond. A month later, police said, he killed another woman.

“I’m concerned the way you’re speaking with me and admonishing me — it could harm my client’s case, and it may impact your rulings,” Assistant Public Defender Samantha Sridaran told Borkowski.

Although Borkowski never raised his voice, he made it clear he was displeased.

The proceedings surrounding Moseby’s case were the subject of a TribLive investigation which showed that, despite Borkowski denying bond for Moseby four times over 14 months, the Public Defender’s Office filed a new motion with Orphans’ Court Judge Michael McCarthy asking for the same thing.

Orphans’ Court handles various civil matters, including adoptions, wills and issues involving incapacitated people.

Following a hearing in December — at which neither the prosecutor nor the stabbing victim was present — McCarthy granted Moseby’s release to an unlocked facility in Penn Hills.

On June 4, police said, he shot and killed Samantha Howells, 52, in Crafton Heights.

Although the parties appeared before Borkowski on Tuesday to discuss a new request for a competency evaluation, Borkowski spent most of the hearing going step by step through the past proceedings, asking the Public Defender’s Office if it could justify its decision to go around him.

“When I had repeatedly rejected a bond modification since his arrest based on his dangerous propensity and unwillingness or inability to abide by release conditions, 13 business days later … you filed a motion to modify bond in Orphans’ Court,” Borkowski said.

Although 10 attorneys and offices were notified of the request, Borkowski recounted, he was not one of them.

“I specifically rejected the placement you advocated in front of Judge McCarthy,” Borkowski said.

“My first question: Why did you graft a bond modification onto an Orphans’ Court proceeding?”

Sridaran said she filed it because Moseby could not have been granted a civil commitment if the criminal court bond were still in place.

Borkowski noted that at the Dec. 18 hearing before McCarthy, no prosecutor was present, the victim wasn’t notified and no one from the court’s pretrial services division was there, even though their presence is required by law.

“You sat there, and you went through that hearing, and you did not alert Judge McCarthy to the three glaring and significant, substantive procedural shortcomings,” Borkowski said. “Do you have any explanation for that?”

“I have no comment,” Sridaran began, before expressing her concern over Borkowski’s comments.

Borkowski quoted Sridaran’s own comments to McCarthy during that hearing.

“’Whatever you decide today, I just ask that you set bond consistently just to make sure that we don’t have to go back across the street and have a decision in front of Judge Borkowski,” Sridaran told McCarthy.

Borkowski, a career prosecutor who has been on the criminal court bench since 2007, questioned Sridaran’s position given that he, “after 14 months, is most familiar with Mr. Moseby and his history and circumstances.”

Sridaran again said she believed she needed to have Moseby’s bond modified to get the civil commitment.

“That’s what I intended by those statements,” she said.

Borkowski did not appear to be satisfied but concluded, “I will remind the parties of their responsibilities under the rules of professional conduct.”

Also during Tuesday’s hearing, Borkowski denied a request by the Public Defender’s Office for a gag order.

On Monday, the Public Defender’s Office filed a motion for a protective order, citing the TribLive investigation.

In the motion, the office noted the story included details of the allegations against Moseby from the criminal complaint and claimed it portrayed the accusations that Moseby is violent as true.

“The furor surrounding this matter currently shows no signs of slowing down, and local media attention can safely be anticipated to continue” throughout the case, the motion stated.

On Monday, President Judge Susan Evashavik DiLucente rejected a request by the Public Defender’s Office to have the Orphans’ Court records sealed, finding, “In large part, the cat’s out of the bag.”

Borkowski did grant a defense request for Moseby, previously found to be incompetent to stand trial because of an intellectual disability, to have a new competency evaluation.

The judge said he planned to refer the evaluation to a special team used by the court.